Once the cast was set, the filmmaking team scoured the globe for locations that could replicate the look and feel of ancient Jerusalem, and the arid surrounding Judean desert, in Christ’s time. They scouted from Morocco and Tunisia to New Mexico and Spain but the logistics of moving from one place to another were mind-boggling. Ultimately, Gibson found himself drawn to Rome which offered two extraordinary advantages: 1) the legendary studios at Cinecitta renowned for their set-building artisans, considered the finest in the world; and 2) the nearby 2,000 year-old city of Matera, an idyllically beautiful town of rocky vistas and ancient stone blocks in the Basilicata region that so brings to mind Jerusalem, it was also chosen by Pasolini as the primary location for The Gospel According to St. Matthew.
Collaborating closely with Gibson were Italian production designer Francesco Frigeri (Malèna) and set decorator Carlo Gervasi who were given the task of designing such extensive, historically-based sets as the Temple, the Praetorium and Pilate’s Palace. Jerusalem at the time of Jesus’ death was a city of vast splendors, set among surrounding hills and lined with colorful markets, citadels, viaduct bridges and public monuments. Nothing like it exists today (destroyed in AD 70 by the Romans, the only thing that remains of Herod’s Great Temple is The Western Wall in modern Jerusalem). So in just ten weeks Frigeri designed the city sets from scratch on 2 1/2 acres of backlot at Cinecitta, with Matera’s hills and stone outcroppings used later for backdrops.
Based on research, Frigeri’s compacted version of Jerusalem reflects the city’s mix of influences, from the Roman to the Herodian, a place of towering white columns, long flights of stone steps and Roman-style arcades, as well as of sun-baked limestone houses, open-air street bazaars and narrow, unpaved streets. With its vast space and set-building facilities, Cinecitta is one of the few places in the world it is possible to recreate on an entire city – in fact, just prior to Mel Gibson recreating First Century Jerusalem at Cinecitta, Martin Scorsese forged 19th century New York there for his epic Gangs of New York. Meanwhile, in Matera, the production team recreated the high stone walls that surrounded Jerusalem, the scenes of Jesus’ childhood and the crucifixion at Golgotha.
Also essential to the visual style of The Passion of The Christ is the work of renowned cinematographer and four-time Oscar® nominee Caleb Deschanel. Deschanel, who previously collaborated with Mel Gibson on The Patriot, spent long hours with the director discussing his vision for the film, looking to the canvases of Caravaggio, the groundbreaking late renaissance painter, for inspiration.
Caravaggio’s rich play of light, his palpable realism and his shifting themes of darkness and spiritual illumination completely revolutionized religious paintings in the 17th century, breaking away from the idealization of religious experience. Gibson, too, wanted to break the mold of sanitized treatments of The Passion. He saw the immediacy of Caravaggio’s style as a match for the storytelling style of the film. Gibson has said of Caravaggio: “I think his work is beautiful. It’s violent, it’s dark, it’s spiritual and it also has an odd whimsy of strangeness to it”.
Movie Database
In Theaters
